A New Beginning
by Shin-Shui
Summary: Sora's new objective is to see Roxas before the end of Christmas Break. But the way things are going now, it doesn't seem like it'll happen anytime soon.. SoraxRoxas


Sora bounded down the stairs, attempting to avoid being late for the 12th time that month. He seemed to have quite the problem with waking up the last few months. His sister Kairi teased him, "You're always dreaming of hiiiim, aren't you?" running off with a devilish smile, and leaving her brother's face looking like it was in the sun a few hours too long. It wasn't that he was ashamed of his crush, but the fact that his sister could so easily figure out his dreams kinda freaked Sora out.

"I'm leaving!" he cried out, assuming at least one person heard him.

"Hold up!" Kairi sped towards the front door. "I think you forgot something," she said winking, and then turning to point at a neatly-wrapped gift-box lying on the table. On its colorful tag featuring a snowman and a reindeer, Sora had carefully written 'To Roxas'.

"Ah.." he murmured to himself, not letting Kairi know what a huge help she had been in reminding him of it.

Christmas was only 2 days away and Sora figured that if he could get the present to Roxas in time, he might have some hope of at least one day hanging out with him. Specifically he was aiming for the time off from school for Christmas and such, but even if it was later he didn't care. Spending time with Roxas was his life's goal; at least, for the moment.

**30 Minutes Later**

Rather woeful, Sora arrived at Destiny High with Kairi. The School had originally been built with another school named "Twilight High" until Destiny Islands and Twilight Town decided to take down both schools and just build a larger one in between the two previous structures. It became a somewhat longer distance from both towns, but the co-interaction of the student populations was, seemingly, a high-priority. After a tedious re-naming process, as both towns insisted on using the previous name, Destiny High won because of its "encouragment to high aspirations." And, as cheesy as it was, Sora had to admit that "Destiny High" sounded a lot more encouraging than "Twilight High".

Sora wasn't very fond of having to get up at 6:00 every morning. Nor was he fond of the fact he had to face math first period. The class was hard enough as was, what with there being sines and cosines, tangents and variables, and irrational numbers that, much to your regrets, teachers expected you to take as rational thoughts. Even when they got back to an easy spot that Sora was sure he could do, the teachers would call on him and then put a sudden twist on the whole problem, leaving the brunette with his mouth gaping open with an "uhmmmm...." radiating throughout the classroom. And the smug looks he got everytime he came in late didn't help his feelings towards the class either.

"Late again," Tidus teased as Sora slunk into his seat slowly, suddenly wishing he were a bug as to avoid the glares of fellow classmates. The brunette didn't mind Tidus's teasings, as they had been friends for countless years, but the seemingly-random people who gave him looks did make him feel uneasy.

He suddenly stared at the clock, noticing only 3 minutes were left of class.

"Why didn't I just wait outside the school..." he muttered to himself. Next period was his favorite class of the day. He had Cooking/Home Ec with Roxas. How and why Roxas had been in the class puzzled Sora to no end, but did it matter to him? Definitely not.

A shockwave of joy and relief was sent down Sora's spine as the bell signaling Second Period rang. He grabbed together his books and carefully placed the box containing Roxas's present on top. He rushed off to the class so he could put the present where Roxas would be sitting. He put that it was "From Sora" inside the actual wrapping so that noone could tell it was from him without opening it. He stared at the perfectly-adorned box for a moment before saying to himself; "Let's hope Roxas likes it..". If only he had seen that Roxas walked up behind him, perhaps he could've avoided the awkward moments to follow.

"Hey, Sora," Roxas greeted in a friendly-but-not-over-the-top tone. Sora's hair stood on end as he turned to see the Blond with a small grin on his face.

"H-Hi Ro-Roxy.." he said quickly, feeling blood vessels in his face burst one by one. "ROXAS!" He suddenly cried out, realizing he had just called the blond by the petname he had created in his head. "I meant Roxas.." he looked down, hoping he hadn't just made a complete fool out of himself.

He heard a slight chuckle from the boy in front of him, and decided to go over to his seat without saying anything more.

"Is this present from you?" he inquired in, what appeared to Sora as a gleeful tone.

"Uhm..n-no...It was..j-just there," Sora barely managed to get out. He was commiting a mental suicide in his head. Lying to him, Sora!? He's gonna see your name as soon as he gets the giftwrap off!! His mental checklist of the day now consisted of 'Kick myself when I get home, Have Kairi yell at me because I'm such a dork,' and 'try to savage any hope at all of Roxas and I ever hanging out.'

He attempted to recollect his thoughts before he started again.

"Uhm..y-yeah. It's from me. Don't open it until Christmas, though." Sora asked quietly, his glimmering ocean-blue eyes slowly going from the ground to Roxas's face.

"Okay, sure." And that was the end of Sora's riveting conversation.

"Now class, today we're going to be making a holiday cake. Entirely from scratch. None of that boxed crap." Their teacher had what the students called a "Real passion for cooking. "Each of you is going to be paired with a partner today."

Sora groaned. He always got the most inexperienced people paired up with him. He listened half-heartedly as their teacher rattled off names, two at a time, eventually finishing with; "And that leaves Sora to be paired with Roxas. Everyone off to work now."

Sora's eyes opened wide. Was he really paired with Roxas!? His heart began fluttering around his chest, just like a new bird just learning to fly.

"Well, looks like we're together." Roxas broke in.

"WHAT!?" Sora screamed out, his heart racing. "Oh. The cake. Right." His mental checklist was soon changed to 'Kick myself twice when I get home. Nice one, Sora. Nice one.'.

Roxas laughed shortly before he got out their book and began looking over all the ingredients.

"Ok," he began, apparently not noticing that Sora was lovestruck and paying no attention, "this won't be too hard."

Several egg crackings, flour spillings, and sifter messes later, their cake batter was in the bowl with Sora mixing it at low power.

"After this we just put it in the oven to cook, and then decorate!" Roxas smiled, either showing he felt accomplished, or, as Sora liked to think, because him and Roxas had done such a great job together.

Sora thought on the matter for a few moments, before realizing he was mixing, but it was too late. His hand had slid down the mixer to the "5" power option, and the beaters spun like a wacked-out carnival ride. Cake batter flew in every which direction and had splattered all over his face. He turned the mixer off and wiped the batter covering his eyes, off. He saw Roxas was equally as covered and immediately felt horrible. "Ro-Roxas..." Sora choked out. "I'm so s-sorry.."

"Don't be sorry, Sora. It gives me an excuse to do this.." before Sora knew anything was happening Roxas had removed his apron and shirt, exposing a semi-muscular, semi-tanned stomach and chest belonging to none other than Roxas. He slowly crept over to Sora and whispered "This is going to taste so sweet.." before he licked a splash of the cake batter off of Sora's cheeks. "Ro-Roxas!! What are you doing!!" Sora could tell he was turning bright red.

"I know you want this, Sora.." Roxas said, unrelenting. He slowly began to pull Sora's shirt off. "Ro...Ro...ROXAS!!!!!!!!" Sora cried out.

"Yes, Sora?" Roxas stared at the brunette for some time before Sora eventually looked at him.

"Oh. Roxas." Sora swore he was turning a brand new shade of red right then, and he looked away from Roxas.

"Sora. Are you okay? You were just shouting out my name." Roxas tried to disguise the interest in his voice.

"U-uhm...I..uhm...I..n-need y-you to mix the b-batter for me." Sora could tell his voice sounded like he had been out in the cold for hours upon hours and he was shivering to keep warm.

"Sure, Sora," Roxas responded, apparently unphased by the previous happenings.

The brunette slowly sat down, attempting to get himself to stop blushing. As soon as he felt he was recomposed, he sat up again and helped finish the job.

Roxas and Sora stared at the confectionary creation lying before them.

"It looks great!" Roxas winked at Sora and gave him a pat of congratulations. "You did a great job of decorating it."

Sora beamed with pride and happiness. Roxas had complimented him!

Hiding his embarassment, Sora replied with a simple "Th-Thanks.."

The rest of the day went by extremely slow. Even classes Sora liked passed by in slow-motion. Finally, the annoucements for the end of the day rang through Sora's head; "Good evening, students, our only annoucement today is to have a safe and happy holiday! Now be good and we'll see you in the New Year!" The annoncement ended with a click and some slight feedback before the last school-bell of the year resounded through everyone's ears, cutting the thick layer of anticipation looming throughout the school.

Sora ran out of the classroom he was in and headed for the second hallway. 'It's now or never' Sora thought as he turned the corner. 'You have to talk to him if you're ever gonna have any kind of chance!'

No sooner did he finish the thought than Roxas appeared at his locker.

'Here goes nothing..'

Sora slowly inched towards Roxas's locker.

"Oh, hey Sora," Roxas smiled, looking up from the lock on his locker, "what's up?"

Sora was turning 5 shades of red at 'Oh, hey..' but he ventured further into the conversation.  
"Uhm...n-nothing.." he looked at the ground, hoping Roxas couldn't see how embarassed he was getting, "I was j-just wondering if maybe you had wanted to...ya know...like..hang out over the break or something."  
"Well.." Roxas began, making Sora's heart fall to the ground, "sure. But I'd have no way of getting a hold of you!" He gave a short smile at Sora.  
"Oh..w-well.." Sora quickly ripped off a tiny piece of paper, from something useless he'd hoped, and scrawled his phone number on to it. "Uhm..h-here."  
Roxas took a quick glance at the paper and then put it in his pocket. "Ok, got it. I've gotta get running." He shot a smile at Sora and ran off towards the doors.  
"Yeah....cya, Roxas..." Sora smiled a little, and then skipped away feeling suddenly very warm.

**Christmas Day**

The two days came and went with no word from Roxas, and Christmas Day arrived. Sora awoke to piles of boxes around their tree. He smiled softly and then went back upstairs to wake everyone. After all the presents were opened and the stockings were emptied, Sora checked their phone's message inbox. "You have, 0, new messages," an automated woman's voice monotonously spoke aloud. Sora sighed and slunked down into his chair. He figured he would try to get all the negativity out now, because he didn't want to have to explain why he was upset to his whole family. He slowly got up and got ready for the day's activities.

**New Year's Eve**

Five days passed and there was still no hearing froming the blond. Sora had given up all hope of ever seeing the blond, just sitting at home in the new panda robe Kairi had bought him. He wouldn't admit it, but he secretly loved it.  
"Thirty minutes until the New Year!" he called out from his place on the couch. He sunk further into his wallowing. He felt a sudden vibrating in his pocket and took out his cellphone. The key-charm on the end sparkled in the light, and Sora sighed. He gazed at the number for a while before silently asking himself, "I wonder what number this is..?" He flipped open the phone and, with a tone full of disdain, answered; "Hello?"  
"Hey...uhm...is Sora there," a nervous caller suddenly asked.  
"This is him..." Sora replied without a hint of sarcasm.  
"Oh. Sora! It's me, Roxas." the blond replied suddenly cheerful.  
"Roxas!?" Sora jumped up from the couch, nearly smacking his head on decorations above, "What's up!?" Sora suddenly realized how anxious he sounded and immediately sat back down, blushing.  
"Nothing. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me."  
"It's New Year's Eve, though. I was going to stay in with my family.." Sora replied, kind of upset that the words had come out of his mouth. He quickly added; "Besides, it would take the train from Twilight Town a couple hours to get here.."  
"Well, it _did_. I'm outside."  
"_What!_" Sora ran to his front windows and looked outside. Sure enough, a frosty-looking blond gave him a simple smile before talking into the phone he was holding.  
"I spent the last thirty minutes looking for which house was yours." he started simply, "Now _please_ can we hang out or will you at least let me inside?" the hint of a whine made Sora smile brightly. 'He's so adorable..'  
"Give me five minutes," Sora responded quickly into the phone and ran to his room.

Sure enough, five minutes Sora opened the front door to his house.  
"I'll be back later!" he cried out to anyone that was listening. He quickly shut the door not caring if anyone heard him.  
"Hey, Sora!" Roxas gave a beaming grin to the brunette who blushed slightly. The only reason Sora was grateful for it being so cold out was that he could blame his flushed face on the icy winds outside.  
"Hi Roxy---I mean Roxas!!" Sora felt his face turning even brighter.  
Roxas laughed softly before saying, "You ready?"  
Sora nodded and the two went walking down the snow-ridden sidewalk together.  
Their talks were usually of the small kind, but Sora didn't care. Him and Roxas were alone. Together. Talking. It was like a dream come true.

"Hey, only 5 minutes until the New Year," Roxas suddenly said.  
"Huh, wha? Oh yeah!" Sora had forgotten it was New Year's Eve. "Hard to believe another year's already passed us by."  
Roxas nodded slowly and they continued walking for a short time.  
Roxas started slowly; "Hey, Sora..." the tone of his voice made Sora look directly at him. He knew it was probably the cold air, but for a second, Sora thought the red on Roxas's cheeks was actually him blushing. Roxas continued; "Have you ever..." he stopped, recollecting his thoughts and taking a look at his watch, "..My family's always had this tradition." he began again.  
"Really?" Sora stared at him with an inquisitive look.  
"Yeah. You see, every year, just when it turns to the next year..." he looked away for a moment. And then, stopping in front of a giant tree lit up with wondorous blue and green lights, and decorated with all sorts of ornaments. Sora could safely say it was the prettiest tree he'd every seen.  
"We would give someone around us a kiss."  
"Ro...Roxas..." Sora looked up from the ground, blushing.  
"And..." he turned around, walked a step, and then looked to the left and right before turning around once again, "as far as I can tell, you're the only one around."  
And with those words, fireworks went off in the sky, announcing that it was officially a new year and a new beginning. Roxas took a step forward and Sora took a step back. Roxas repeated, but Sora noticed he was right in front of the tree. Roxas gently pressed himself up against Sora and gently gave a kiss to Sora.

"Roxas...." Sora said, dazed. A tear slowly made its way down his cheek. "W-Why..?"  
Roxas smiled at the brunet, wiping the tear away from his face, "Simple. I love you too, Sora."  
Sora had almost not believed him, until he saw Roxas's neck.  
"Y-You're wearing it." he said softly, almost in disbelief. The small golden key necklace had been carefully placed around the blond. The charm on Sora's cell-phone was a cheap replica they had given out when you bought it. A small consolation for the price.  
Roxas just nodded and softly whispered; "Sora.."  
Sora blushed once again, but this time he leaned forward and pressed his own lips to Roxas's.  
Snow began falling around them as the sky lit up with fireworks. The tree's lights shone brightly, and, nuzzling his head into Roxas's chest, Sora simply smiled at how wonderful it all was.

The end.


End file.
